by Ross Richardson
Beginning to Tell the Ending
When we create music, every note, every lyric, and every melody holds the power to convey emotions, tell stories, and evoke memories. When it comes to crafting an album, let alone a concept album, selecting the right song to finish with is akin to choosing the last brushstroke on a painting. It is a decision not to be taken lightly, as it sets the tone for how the whole album will be remembered. Similar to how I found myself wanting an introduction (“00 Proem”) to help ease the listener into this world, I found myself wanting something to close the album with, a recap of the ground we had covered, a reflection of sorts.
As Yevhen's story took shape, we found ourselves with much more than just a collection of songs. We'd gone on a narrative journey, a sonic odyssey into the themes of identity, freedom, self-actualization, and the human experience. Now, approaching the conclusion of That Light You See Is Hope and It’s Burning Down Your City, we were grappling with how to best bring the story to its rightful conclusion. We wanted a track that would act as a mirror, allowing listeners to introspect, reminisce, and connect with the journey they'd taken with Yevhen over the course of the album. We wanted to weave a tapestry of sound as we painted a final image in the minds of our listeners. We toyed with various ideas and had largely settled on “07 Altering the Kismet Program” being the finale of the album until I had this wild idea, this concept for a song to capture the true essence of the story so far.
Using the IKEA Model
To create the building blocks of an epilogue you need to look backwards, right? A mirror observes where you have come from—and since our musical memory is largely rooted in melody, why not use that as the vessel for delivering an aural recollection? To create “08 Coda (To Hold a Haunted Resolve),” I took the prevailing melodies from all the songs in the album, transposed them to the same key and unified their tempo. Using these blocks, I began to piece together an entirely novel melody.
Laying this out was no light task. It required considerable rearranging and a deep understanding of the musical motifs at play throughout our narrative. But as this musical mosaic began to take shape, I realized that it was more than just a fitting conclusion to the album, it was the core of our project laid bare. With the melodies transposed, the instrumentation stripped away, and the emotions expressed in their raw form, we were left with just a single piano ringing out. It was a return to simplicity, a reminder that beneath the thunderous riffs and melodic arcs, the plug-ins and Discord calls, lies the pure essence of music—the ability to evoke feeling and stir the soul.
But perhaps what makes “Coda” truly special is how it encapsulates the journey of our protagonist, Yevhen, in a single, cohesive piece. As each melody intertwines and harmonizes with the next, it mirrors the evolution and journey of our character, from confusion and uncertainty to self-discovery and ultimately liberation. I imagine Yevhen sitting down at a piano and doing a very human thing: playing through his emotions. In this action, we see the melodies revisited as themes, as if his memories were replaying the songs of his experiences. The apprehensive arpeggios of “05 The Multiple Registers and Sensoria of a Wayward Imprint” transition into the solemn chants from “01 On the Meltdown Periphery Lies the Reverie Forge;” the ideologic yearning of “02 Resistance Sermon in Aphasia City” reinforces the pining of the “04 A Meteorite Falls on Dark Matters” melody to underscore the monologue. The track comes to an end with complete emotional punctuation as the dialogue finishes and you hear the piano's fallboard click into place and the echoes of footsteps receding.
Making Room for the Next Step
In the end, the decision to finish That Light You See with “Coda” was not just about providing closure to our narrative—it was about honoring the journey we had embarked upon, and the emotions we had sought to evoke along the way. It was about inviting our audience to join us one last time as we savor the beauty of a story well-told, and a melody that will linger long after the final note has faded into silence.
But the story doesn’t end there. “Coda” marks the end of the first arc of Archive of the Unbounded, and we are so excited to share arc two with you. Thank you so much for following along with us, and keep an eye out for more information soon regarding Archive of the Unbounded Arc Two: Stolen Light from Jealous Stars.
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